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SOMERS, Conn. (AP) - Serial killer Michael Ross has tried for 10 years to speed his own death. On Saturday, little more than an hour before his scheduled execution, Ross' own attorney caused another delay, saying he needed time to examine his own potential conflict of interest. Now attorney T.R. Paulding's relationship with his client - and the ethics involved in helping him die - are under close scrutiny. Ross hired Paulding last year to help him expedite his own execution, which would be the first in New England in 45 years. "It's a good example of where the adversarial...

SOMERS, Conn. -- When Lan Tu arrived at the Hartford train station, his sister's killer was scheduled to be put to death in two hours -- at 2:01 a.m. yesterday. But by the time he arrived at the Osborn Correctional Institution, the execution of serial killer Michael Ross had been postponed until tomorrow at 9 p.m. "It's somewhat disappointing but not unexpected," Tu said soon after learning of the turn of events. "He's guilty; he wants to die. So if he isn't executed, whom would you execute?" New England's first execution in 45 years was abruptly put on hold at...

Liberty and Justice for a few Who has the right to decide who lives and dies? Apparently, America’s courts feel fit to take on the conundrum. This week, the United States Supreme Court vacated a stay that blocked the execution of serial killer Michael Ross. This effectively removes the obstacles between the convicted killer and his own date with death. Michael Ross, by his own acknowledgment, killed eight women in Connecticut and New York, and had been scheduled to die by lethal injection the previous Wednesday. Because of the ongoing legal battle, the Department of Corrections postponed the execution twice....

SOMERS, Conn -- The execution of a serial killer who has become the strongest advocate for his own death was postponed at the last moment early Saturday, delaying what would be New England's first execution in 60 years. State officials delayed the lethal injection until Monday morning to address a possible conflict of interest with serial killer Michael Ross' attorney, T.R. Paulding. "The request made by Mr. Paulding today is appropriate and we have no choice but to honor it," Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano said. Ross, an Ivy League graduate who terrorized eastern Connecticut and New York in the...

  The Poor Lamb Cries & the ACLU RejoicesJanuary 27, 2005 In The Rape of Lucrece, Shakespeare poignantly notes that when “The wolf hath seized his prey, the poor lamb cries.”  Those cries of the poor lamb fall on the deaf ears of the liberals over at the ACLU.  Even more poignant, the taxpayer supported ACLU, much like the Nazis whose “rights” they support, celebrates the death of “poor lambs” and the life of “wolves”.  It is a world turned upside-down by the degenerative logic of ACLU liberals...gratis your tax dollars. Imagine any lawmaker asking a constituency to support taxpayer funding for...

The execution of serial killer Michael Ross, 45, likely will not take place as scheduled at 2:01 a.m. Wednesday, given a federal judge's decision to hold his own hearing on whether Ross is competent to forgo further appeals and "volunteer" to be executed. "It is inevitable that I will be entering a stay, "Chief U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny said at 2:12 p.m. this afternoon. Addressing Ross' lawyer, T.R. Paulding, the judge said: "I think it would be humane if you were to inform your client … he's not going to be executed this week." Chatigny had said he...

HARTFORD, Conn. (CNS) -- As the date neared for Connecticut's first execution in nearly 45 years, the state's Catholic conference joined forces with the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty in a petition drive to end the death penalty. The petition was distributed to every parish in the Hartford Archdiocese, along with a letter from Archbishop Henry J. Mansell of Hartford reminding Catholics, "The Gospel mandates us to respect human life from conception to natural death." Michael Ross, 45, is scheduled to be executed Jan. 26. He was sentenced to death in 1987 for murdering four teenage girls in...

HARTFORD, Conn. -- The Connecticut Civil Liberties Union is entering the legal fray over next month's scheduled execution of serial killer Michael Ross, challenging lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment. The CCLU lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court on behalf of Ross' father, Dan Ross, acting as "next friend" to his son. The lawsuit cites an anesthesiologist's critical report of Connecticut's death penalty procedures and his conclusions that the process could inflict severe pain and trauma on Ross. "Media witnesses or family witnesses are being misled [about the procedure ], because it looks like the person is...

NEW LONDON, Conn. - A judge ruled Tuesday that a confessed serial killer — set to become the first inmate executed in New England in 40 years — is mentally competent and can forgo further appeals of his death sentence. Michael Ross, 45, is scheduled to be executed Jan. 26 for killing four young women in eastern Connecticut in the 1980s. He has admitted to killing a total of eight women and raping several of them. Superior Court Judge Patrick Clifford ordered Ross to testify in court and be examined by a psychiatrist to ensure he was competent to decide...

NEW LONDON, Conn. -- Serial killer Michael Ross, at times crying, testified Tuesday that he believes he deserves to live, but doesn't want to pursue any more appeals of his death sentence because of the pain it would cause his victims' families. "I understand why they hurt," Ross said. "I've been trying for 10 years to stop this. Hopefully in 28 days I'll be able to stop it, and that's my goal."